Reece Gardner: Let’s resolve now to vote in the primary election

Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 at 06:32 PM.

One-stop voting begins for the primaries just eight days from now, on April 24, so today I want to comment on some of the contests involved in these primaries.

Registered Democrats and registered Republicans will, of course, vote in their own primaries, but those registered Unaffiliated, of which there are now in excess of 6,000 in Lenoir County, may to choose to vote in either primary. For example, if you are registered Unaffilated and you want to vote for, say, Sheriff Chris Hill, you can do so by voting in the Democratic primary or, if you want to vote for a particular candidate in the Republican primary, you can do so by voting in the Republican primary, and so on.

Let’s take a look at the various candidates in the two major primaries, starting with the Democratic primary: For the U.S. Senate, Incumbent Kay Hagan is being challenged by Will Stewart of Hampstead and Ernest Reeves of Greenville. Speculation is that Hagan will prevail in the primary but will have difficulty in the general election. Also, as Board of Elections Director Dana King reminds us, when there are more than two candidates running for a particular office in the primary, the top vote-getter must get at least 40 percent of the total vote in order to avoid a possible runoff election.

For the U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Congressman G.K. Butterfield is being challenged by Dan Whittacre. If Butterfield wins the primary, which he is expected to do, he will face either Brent Shypulefski or Arthur Rich in November.

One-stop voting begins for the primaries just eight days from now, on April 24, so today I want to comment on some of the contests involved in these primaries.

Registered Democrats and registered Republicans will, of course, vote in their own primaries, but those registered Unaffiliated, of which there are now in excess of 6,000 in Lenoir County, may to choose to vote in either primary. For example, if you are registered Unaffilated and you want to vote for, say, Sheriff Chris Hill, you can do so by voting in the Democratic primary or, if you want to vote for a particular candidate in the Republican primary, you can do so by voting in the Republican primary, and so on.

Let’s take a look at the various candidates in the two major primaries, starting with the Democratic primary: For the U.S. Senate, Incumbent Kay Hagan is being challenged by Will Stewart of Hampstead and Ernest Reeves of Greenville. Speculation is that Hagan will prevail in the primary but will have difficulty in the general election. Also, as Board of Elections Director Dana King reminds us, when there are more than two candidates running for a particular office in the primary, the top vote-getter must get at least 40 percent of the total vote in order to avoid a possible runoff election.

For the U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Congressman G.K. Butterfield is being challenged by Dan Whittacre. If Butterfield wins the primary, which he is expected to do, he will face either Brent Shypulefski or Arthur Rich in November.

Walter Martin and Jonathan Barfield are vying for the Democratic nomination for U.S. House of Representatives in District 7.

For the N.C. Senate District 5 seat, incumbent Don Davis faces off against Henry Williams II of Greenville and Tony Moore of Winterville.

On the local level, W.D. Anderson of Kinston is running for the Lenoir County Board of Education, challenging Incumbent C.L. Braxton of Grifton.

Perhaps the most heated and talked-about local contest in the Democratic primary is the race for Sheriff of Lenoir County, with Sheriff Chris Hill being challenged by Ronnie Ingram. This one is being watched very closely.

Now, let’s look at the Republican primary: There are eight candidates running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, with current House leader Thom Tillis expected to garner the most votes, followed, probably, by Greg Brannon.

But, as mentioned earlier, in order to avoid a possible runoff election, the top vote-getter must get at least 40 percent of the total vote. The winner here will likely face Sen. Kay Hagan in the general election.

Brent Shypulefski of Rocky Mount and Arthur Rich of Garland are running for the Republican nomination for U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, with the winner likely to face Congressman Butterfield in November.

Congressman Walter Jones is expected to win the Republican nomination for U.S. House of Representatives, District 3, against challengers Al Novinec and Taylor Griffin and, if so, he will face Democrat Marshall Adame in the general election.

David Rouzer, who lost in a VERY close race for U.S. House of Representatives, District 7, in the general election two years ago, is being challenged in the primary by Woody White of Wilmington and Chris Andrade of Fayetteville. The winner here will face the winner of the Democratic primary for that seat, either Walter Martin or Jonathan Barfield, and Libertarian candidate J. Wesley Casteen.

These are the primary contests, but there is one other race that will be on everyone’s ballot, which is the non-partisan contest for Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. The three candidates for this very important office will not be listed by party on

the ballot, but their party affiliations are as follows: Democrat Robin Hudson, incumbent, and Republicans Eric Levinson and Jeanette Doran. You can vote for only one of these three, and the two top vote-getters will move on to the general election.

We have every opportunity to vote both in the primary and general elections year. LET’S RESOLVE NOW TO DO SO!

Reece Gardner is the host of “The Reece Gardner Hour,” which airs on TACC-9 on Mondays at 9 p.m., Tuesdays at 8 p.m., Thursdays at 11 p.m., Sundays at 10:30 p.m. and on-demand anytime at TACC9.com. You can reach Reece at rbgej@aol.com.